Saturday, December 8, 2007

Waiting at the subway station - “I didn't get a toy train like the other kids. I got a toy subway instead. You couldn't see anything, but every now and then you'd hear this rumbling noise go by.”

A true story comes from an incident which occurred during a business training seminar. To illustrate motivation, the trainer asked one of the business executives in the audience to come forward.

The trainer said, "I want you to imagine that I have placed a wooden beam across the floor here and I would like for you to walk from one end of the beam to the other end. Would you do that for $20?"

The man said that he would.

Then leader continued, "Now, I want you to imagine that I take that same beam and raise it up to the top of a forty-story building and run it across the street to another tall building. Would you still walk across the beam for $20?"

The trainer, of course, was right in assuming that a parent's devotion to a child is usually greater than almost any amount of fear associated with saving that child. Most parents love their children fiercely and would do anything possible to help them.

An eastern newspaper reported that a train in Bangladesh accidentally struck a calf elephant. The mother elephant apparently became upset over the incident, for a little while later another train came along and spotted the female standing in the middle of the track. Though the engineer blasted his horn, she would not budge. When the train came to a halt, she began butting it with her head! For fifteen minutes she hammered the engine, rendering it inoperable. Once satisfied, she walked off into the jungle, stranding two hundred passengers for five hours while they waited for a replacement engine. Don't mess with her children!

Devotion to our own children is essential. Here are some ways we can channel our devotion into productive areas.